The Help to Buy ISA scheme is available until the 30th November 2019. Personally, I am staying away from it and here are the reasons why.

1) It is a savings account with a low interest rate, the typical 2.5% rate is just about going to keep up with inflation so in actual fact you are not growing your money.

2) Apart from the initial £1200 deposit, you are only allowed to contribute £200 every month so if you are in a position to put away more or you want to speed up the process you can’t.

3) In all it will take you roughly 5 years to save up the £12000 needed to be eligible for their £3000 ‘bonus’. This ‘bonus’ is not a cash bonus and cannot be used to be put towards your deposit.

3b) Instead, that £3000 ‘bonus’ will be put towards the final fee of your house, which is nowhere near as significant seeing as they will be profiting from all the interest they charge you on your mortgage.

4) The £12000 needed to be eligible for the maximum £3000 ‘bonus’ is nowhere near a 10% deposit of the average London house. Average price = £470,000, 10% deposit is £47,000 or 5% deposit = £23500. Oh yeah, you can’t buy a house over £450,000 in London to be eligible.

To conclude, if you’re not going to invest in anything else this may be your best bet but please don’t let the government convince you that this is a good investment because it is not. This is my personal opinion so make sure you look at all aspects and make your own decisions.